by Max Hennessy
‘I’m being sent straight on to ops, sir,’ he had said. ‘They waived the rest of the training.’
‘There can’t be many people,’ Boumphrey had observed, ‘who arrive on an operational squadron for the first time with a DFM and a couple of dozen sorties under their belts.’
Jenno had also been with the news that Craddock was going to pull through. As he turned to leave, he paused. ‘By the way,’ he said, ‘I thought you’d like to know. The young storks have left the nest at last.’
Boumphrey smiled. ‘Oh, good show! All right?’
‘Unfortunately, no. Take-offs were a bit premature. The first one made it over the wire but it lost flying speed, crash-landed and was grabbed by a jackal.’
‘And the second?’
‘Broke a wing. It was brought to the hospital for servicing but when it found itself about to be x-rayed it gave up the ghost.’ Jenno smiled. ‘Pity, really. They were a sort of symbol of this place.’
Finally Ghadbhbhan appeared with a wilting bunch of flowers and the information that the legion had come out of the scuffle outside Mandadad with no more than a few minor wounds. Boumphrey was still thinking of the sergeant major’s shy happiness when Prudence Wood-Withnell appeared. She was brisk and cheerful and Boumphrey was damned if he didn’t think she was more good-looking. She had come out of her shell a lot since the fun had started and had revealed qualities nobody had been aware of. The siege had shown many people what they and their friends were made of. Her shyness had disappeared and she was no longer afraid to look people in the eye. Knowing each other seemed to be good for both of them.
‘How are you today, Ratter?’ she asked.
‘Feels as if I’d been to see the headmaster and had six of the best with a very thick cane,’ Boumphrey admitted. ‘I shan’t be able to sit down properly for a long time and even then I shall have a list to starboard. Will you mind?’
She smiled. ‘I’ll lean the other way to make things even,’ she said. ‘You were jolly lucky, actually, Ratter. An inch further to the right and you’d have had four holes in your bottom instead of just two.’
Boumphrey looked up, surprised, and she laughed.
‘Read the report,’ she said. ‘It’s all there. You’ll be on your feet before long and there’s talk of flying the wounded to Egypt.’
Boumphrey nodded. He knew it was so, because Vizard had been to see him. ‘What about you?’ he asked. ‘Are you staying here?’
Prudence shook her head. ‘Father is. I’m not, I’m joining the WAAFS. Then we’ll be in the RAF together, Ratter. I’m going with you to Egypt. I can join there.’
‘That’s jolly sporting.’
‘Father told me you’re going to get a gong.’
‘Really? An army one for flying, or an RAF one for ground operations?’
‘You put up a splendid show, Ratter.’
He reached out and touched her hand. Her fingers curled round his. ‘It’s been quite a business, hasn’t it?’ he said. ‘One of the derring-dos that didn’t win the Empire. I think we did rather well, under the circs, though. I expect when they look into it, they’ll discover that things were more in our favour than we realized but, all the same, it was pretty good, considering the tools we had.’
He paused and grinned. ‘Just a sideshow really,’ he ended. ‘But I think they’ll give us full marks. If nothing else, ten for effort.’
About the Author
Max Hennessy was the pen-name of John Harris. He had a wide variety of jobs from sailor to cartoonist and became a highly inventive, versatile writer. In addition to crime fiction, Hennessy was a master of the war novel and drew heavily on his experiences in both the navy and air force, serving in the Second World War. His novels reflect the reality of war mixed with a heavy dose of conflict and adventure.
Also by Max Hennessy
The RAF Trilogy
The Bright Blue Sky
The Challenging Heights
Once More the Hawks
The Captain Kelly Maguire Trilogy
The Lion at Sea
The Dangerous Years
Back to Battle
The WWII Naval Thrillers
The Sea Shall Not Have Them
Ride Out the Storm
Cotton’s War
North Strike
The Flying Ace Thrillers
The Mustering of the Hawks
The Mercenaries
The Courtney Entry
By Air, By Land, By Sea Collection
The Lonely Voyage
Light Cavalry Action
The Thirty Days War
First published in the United Kingdom in 1986 by Century Hutchinson Ltd
This edition published in the United Kingdom in 2021 by Canelo
Canelo Digital Publishing Limited
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Oxford OX2 0DF
United Kingdom
Copyright © John Harris, 1986
The moral right of John Harris writing as Max Hennessy to be identified as the creator of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781800324831
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
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